Agriculture is one of Australia's deadliest work environments, with the Australian Farm Deaths and Injuries Media Monitors Snapshot reporting a total of 67 on-farm deaths in 2018.
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This is one of the reasons why Farm Safe Australia has been heavily promoting Farm Safety Week from July 21-17.
The aim of the campaign is to raise awareness of farm safety issues in rural communities.
While the campaign focuses on a range of hazards, Chair of Farm Safe and the National Farmers Federation workforce committee Charles Armstrong said one of the major targets this year has been trying to get crush protection devices fitted onto quad bikes.
In 2018 a total of six people died as a result of a quad bike and 11 people were killed the previous year.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission formed a Quad Bike Safety Taskforce in 2017, and have held many consultations and reports since then.
Earlier this year it made a recommendation to the Assistant Treasurer to make a mandatory safety standard.
One of those recommendations was that all quads be fitted with an operation protection device (OPD) and be required to meet minimum requirements for stability within 24 months
Mr Armstrong, who farms between Nyngan and Tottenham, said Farm Safe has been strongly supportive of the ACCC's quad bike safety recommendations.
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Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar previously told the Western Magazine that the Government will carefully consider stakeholder feedback alongside the ACCC's recommendations and advice about implementing a mandatory safety standard.
Quad bike manufacturers Honda and Yamaha both announced earlier this year that they will stop selling quad bikes in Australia if the draft standards proposed by the ACCC are brought into law.
"We're really just on the doorstep. The minister has the recommendations from the ACCC. We've been very strongly supportive of those (recommendations)," Mr Armstrong said.
"It's bleedingly obvious that this needs to happen and they still haven't done it. We're getting pretty anxious that the push back from manufactures is carrying more weight than our voice..."
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Other issues Farm Safe Australia are pushing during the week long campaign is technology and telecommunications, plus chemical safety and kids of farms, as well as mental health.
"The other point we've been pushing is trying to adopt new technology that relates to personal locator beacons and the use of those when someone is a long way from home," he said.
"We're still trying to push for a child proof ignition system on quad bikes in particular."
Mr Armstrong said farmers have to be really safety conscious around chemicals and how they handle and store them.
Mental health issues have been exasperated recently due to the ongoing drought, Mr Armstrong said.
"But it is a communication thing and we as farmers need to not bottle things up... and try to get assistance to work through whatever problems they're facing," he said.
Most of the topics were individually specific, and the main drive of Farm Safe Australia was for farmers to just think about safety and think about it all the time, Mr Armstrong said.
"SO whenever we go to do a job, think about what could go wrong and is it possible to mitigate against it and what is the best way to fix it," the central west farmer said.
Taylor Jurd
Hi, my name is Taylor Jurd. I am a journalist with Australian Community Media, I write for the Western Magazine and Wellington Times.
Hi, my name is Taylor Jurd. I am a journalist with Australian Community Media, I write for the Western Magazine and Wellington Times.
